In January 1898, a contract for the erection of a two-story brick schoolhouse in Lincolnville was awarded to S.S. Leonard.

Work was scheduled to begin as soon as materials could be obtained.

Estimated cost was $8,000.

And thus began the saga of one of the first schools in Florida to educate African Americans.

Sunday from 12:30 to 4 p.m. what's billed as a "finger-lick'n chicken, ribs, baked beans and slaw' dinner will be served on the grounds of the 86 Martin Luther King Ave. facility as a fund-raising effort to restore the historic St. Benedict's School.

The school is located three blocks south of the St. Augustine Post Office.

"Since the lease of the old convent building to P.F. Carcaba for a cigar factory," a Jan. 2 1989 story in The Florida Times-Union notes, "the Catholics have not had a suitable building for colored school purposes."

Construction funding for the now-historic building was a gift from Katherine Drexel, canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 2000. From 1898 to 1964, the school was staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph.

The Sisters were known as a "courageous" group. In 1916, as one example, on Easter Sunday, three teaching Sisters of St. Joseph were arrested for violating Florida law that forbade whites from instructing blacks."

In 1964, St. Benedict's once again made history when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the adjacent parish house during the St. Augustine Civil Rights demonstration.

That was the same year that the school was closed because of the Civil Rights Act and integration of schools in St. Augustine.

In 1991, the building was placed on The National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure to the Lincolnville National Historic District, and last year, a committee was formed to save the building.

This year, the committee was approved for an architectural and planning grant from the Florida Department of Historical Resources for emergency repairs to stabilize and prevent further damage.